Social Problems

1
Social Problems

• Truancy
• Poverty
• Drop Outs
• Abuse and Neglect
• Foster Care
• Divorce
• Substance Abuse
• Pregnancy

• Culture
• Risk Resiliency

2
Truancy

• Truancy is the first sign of trouble the first
  indicator that a young person is giving up and
  losing his or her way. When young people start
  skipping school, they are telling their parents,
  school officials and the community at large that
  they are in trouble and need our help if they are
  to keep moving forward in life.
• Research data tells us that students who become
  truant and eventually drop out of school put
  themselves at a long term disadvantage in
  becoming productive citizens. High school
  dropouts, for example, are two and a half times
  more likely to be on welfare than high school
  graduates. In 1995, high school dropouts were
  almost twice as likely to be unemployed as high
  school graduates. In addition, high school
  dropouts who are employed earn much lower
  salaries. Students who become truant and
  eventually drop out of high school too often set
  themselves up for a life of struggle.
• U.S. Department of Educationin cooperation with
  the U.S. Department of Justice

3
Deterring Truancy

• Involve parents in all truancy prevention
  activities
• Ensure that students face firm sanctions for
  truancy
• Create meaningful incentives for parental
  responsibility
• Establish ongoing truancy prevention programs in
  school
• Involve local law enforcement in truancy
  reduction efforts

4

• Truancy, or unexcused absence from school, has
  been linked to serious delinquent activity in
  youth and to significant negative behavior and
  characteristics in adults.1 As a risk factor for
  delinquent behavior in youth, truancy has been
  found to be related to substance abuse, gang
  activity, and involvement in criminal activities
  such as burglary, auto theft, and vandalism
  (Bell, Rosen, and Dynlacht, 1994 Dryfoos, 1990
  Garry, 1996 Huizinga, Loeber, and Thornberry,
  1995 Rohrman, 1993).

5

• Correlates of Truancy
• Family factors. These include lack of guidance or
  parental supervision, domestic violence, poverty,
  drug or alcohol abuse in the home, lack of
  awareness of attendance laws, and differing
  attitudes toward education.
• School factors. These include school climate
  issuessuch as school size and attitudes of
  teachers, other students, and administratorsand
  inflexibility in meeting the diverse cultural and
  learning styles of the students. Schools often
  have inconsistent procedures in place for dealing
  with chronic absenteeism and may not have
  meaningful consequences available for truant
  youth (e.g., out-of-school suspension).
• Economic influences. These include employed
  students, single-parent homes, high mobility
  rates, parents who hold multiple jobs, and a lack
  of affordable transportation and childcare.
• Student variables. These include drug and alcohol
  abuse, lack of understanding of attendance laws,
  lack of social competence, mental health
  difficulties, and poor physical health.

6
High School Dropouts

• The nation's dropout problem is most severe in a
  few hundred schools in the 35 largest cities in
  the U.S., where nearly half of schools graduate
  less than 50 of their freshman class, according
  to a new study presented at a national conference
  at the Harvard Graduate School of Education on
  January 13, 2001. New research also revealed that
  federally reported data on dropouts is inaccurate
  and underestimates the dropout problem
  nationally, particularly among minority students.

7
Factors to curb dropouts

• Successful Intervention Programs Contain Three
  Common Elements Programs that successfully keep
  students in school share three components a
  smaller organizational structure such as
  self-contained academies within a school a core
  curriculum of high standards combined with
  opportunities for students to recover from
  failure without risk of retention and teacher
  supports such as professional development by
  department and scheduled common planning time.
  Researchers James McPartland and Will Jordan
  (Johns Hopkins University) found that a
  comprehensive set of specific changes that
  addressed these three areas could retain most of
  the current dropouts and help each student
  succeed at a high-standards program of study
  while enjoying school.

8

• School and Class Size Impact Rates of Graduation
  Students' success in school and graduation is
  positively related to small school and class
  size, according to research by Jacqueline Ancess
  and Suzanna Ort Wichterle (National Center for
  Restructuring Education, Schools, Teaching).
  Factors like a performance-based assessment
  system and the organization of school structure,
  curriculum, instruction, assessment, and
  professional development also help students stay
  in school.
• Social and Economic Factors Increase Likelihood
  of Graduation By analyzing the Census's annual
  dropout statistics for the past three decades,
  Robert M. Hauser, Solon J. Simmons, and Devah I.
  Pager (University of Wisconsin-Madison) found
  that certain social and economic factors had a
  continuing positive impact on student graduation.
  These include higher parent education, two-parent
  families, home ownership of parents, and living
  outside central cities. All of the positive
  factors are less present for blacks and Latinos.

9

• Broad Intervention Programs Fail to Help The
  majority of the 20 dropout prevention programs
  administered by the U.S. Department of
  Education's School Dropout Demonstration
  Assistance Program (SDDAP), which serves 10,000
  students, made little difference in preventing
  dropping out, according to researcher Mark
  Dynarski (Mathematica Policy Research
  Associates). Findings confirm earlier work
  indicating the difficulty of identifying risk
  factors that lead to dropout.
• Drawing on examples from various sites, Dynarski
  noted that ongoing, school-based personalized
  attention from adults may conceivably make more
  of a difference in stemming dropout rates than
  broad intervention programs.
• Harvard Graduate School of Education

10
Poverty

11
(No Transcript)
12
2003 Poverty Guidelines for the 48 Contiguous
States and theDistrict of Columbia Poverty
Size of family unit guideline 1...................
....................................... 8,980
2.................................................
......... 12,120 3................................
.......................... 15,260
4.................................................
......... 18,400 5................................
.......................... 21,540
6.................................................
......... 24,680 7................................
.......................... 27,820
8.................................................
......... 30,960
13
Homelessness

• The McKinney-Vento Act is a federal law that
  makes sure children and youth who do not have
  permanent housing can go to school and preschool.
  It gives children and youth rights to enroll in
  school, stay in school, get transportation to
  school, and do well in school. Because it is a
  federal law, the McKinney-Vento Act overrules
  state laws and local policies that disagree with
  it.

14

• Congress passed the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless
  Assistance Act in response to the growing crisis
  of homelessness in the United States. Among the
  many disturbing features of homelessness
  documented at that time was the presence of large
  numbers of homeless families with children.
  Today, families with children represent the
  fastest growing segment of the homeless
  population, constituting approximately 40 of
  people who become homeless (Shinn and Weitzman,
  1996). A 1996 survey of 29 U.S. cities found that
  children accounted for 27 of the homeless
  population (Waxman and Hinderliter, 1996). These
  proportions are likely to be higher in rural
  areas research indicates that families, single
  mothers, and children make up the largest group
  of people who are homeless in rural areas
  (Vissing, 1996).
• Serving the increasing population of homeless
  children. The number of homeless children and
  youth in Missouri increased 262 from 1993 to
  1996. Sixty-eight percent of Missouri's homeless
  children are under age 12. At its current funding
  level, Missouri is not able to help all of its
  homeless children and youth enroll, attend, and
  succeed in school.

15

• Homelessness and poverty are inextricably linked.
  Poor people are frequently unable to pay for
  housing, food, child care, health care, and
  education. Difficult choices must be made when
  limited resources cover only some of these
  necessities. Often it is housing, which absorbs a
  high proportion of income, that must be dropped.
  Being poor means being an illness, an accident,
  or a paycheck away from living on the streets.
• In 2000, 11.3 of the U.S. population, or 31.1
  million people, lived in poverty (U.S. Bureau of
  the Census, 2001). While the number of poor
  people has decreased a bit in recent years, the
  number of people living in extreme poverty has
  increased. In 2000, 39 of all people living in
  poverty had incomes of less than half the poverty
  level. This statistic remains unchanged from the
  1999 level. Forty percent of persons living in
  poverty are children in fact, the 2000 poverty
  rate of 16.2 for children is significantly
  higher than the poverty rate for any other age
  group.
• Two factors help account for increasing poverty
  eroding employment opportunities for large
  segments of the workforce, and the declining
  value and availability of public assistance.

16
Foster Care

• Over 500,000 children in the U.S. currently
  reside in some form of foster care. Placements in
  foster care have dramatically increased over the
  past 10 years. Despite the increasing numbers,
  children in foster care and foster parents are
  mostly "invisible" in communities and often lack
  many needed supports and resources. In situations
  of abuse and neglect, children may be removed
  from their parents' home by a child welfare
  agency and placed in foster care. Other reasons
  for foster placement include severe behavioral
  problems in the child and/or a variety of
  parental problems, such as abandonment, illness
  (physical or emotional), incarceration, AIDS,
  alcohol/substance abuse, and death.
• African-American children make up approximately
  two thirds of the foster care population and
  remain in care longer. Two out of three children
  who enter foster care are reunited with their
  birth parents within two years. A significant
  number, however, can spend long periods of time
  in care awaiting adoption or other permanent
  arrangement.

17
Grounds for TPR- Missouri Kansas

• Abandonment or Extreme Parental
  DisinterestAbuse/NeglectMental Illness or
  DeficiencyAlcohol or Drug Induced
  IncapacityFelony Conviction/IncarcerationFailure
  of Reasonable EffortsAbuse/Neglect or Loss of
  Rights of Another ChildSexual AbuseFailure to
  Maintain ContactFailure to Provide SupportChild
  Judged in Need of Services/DependentChild's Best
  InterestChild in care 15 of 22 months (or
  less)Felony assault of child or
  siblingMurder/Manslaughter of sibling child

18
Child Abuse Neglect- Missouri

• "Abuse" means any physical injury, sexual abuse,
  or emotional abuse inflicted on a child other
  than by accidental means by those responsible for
  the child's care, custody, and control.
• "Neglect" means failure to provide, by those
  responsible for the care, custody, and control of
  the child, the proper or necessary support,
  education as required by law, nutrition or
  medical, surgical, or any other care necessary
  for the child's well-being.

19
Child Abuse Neglect- Kansas

• "Child in need of care" means a person less than
  18 years of age who
• Is without adequate parental care, control or
  subsistence and the condition is not due solely
  to the lack of financial means of the child's
  parents or other custodian
• Is without the care or control necessary for the
  child's physical, mental or emotional health
• Has been physically, mentally or emotionally
  abused or neglected or sexually abused
• Has been placed for care or adoption in violation
  of law
• Has been abandoned or does not have a known
  living parent
• Is not attending school as required by State law
  
• Has been residing in the same residence with a
  sibling or another person under 18 years of age,
  who has been physically, mentally or emotionally
  abused or neglected, or sexually abused.

20

• "Physical, mental or emotional abuse" means the
  infliction of physical, mental or emotional
  injury or the causing of a deterioration of a
  child and may include, but shall not be limited
  to maltreatment or exploiting a child to the
  extent that the child's health or emotional
  well-being is endangered.
• "Sexual abuse" means any act committed with a
  child as described in the statutes listed below,
  regardless of the age of the child.
• "Neglect" means acts or omissions by a parent,
  guardian or person responsible for the care of a
  child resulting in harm to a child or presenting
  a likelihood of harm and the acts or omissions
  are not due solely to the lack of financial means
  of the child's parents or other custodian.
  Neglect may include but shall not be limited to
• Failure to provide the child with food, clothing
  or shelter necessary to sustain the life or
  health of the child
• Failure to provide adequate supervision of a
  child or to remove a child from a situation which
  requires judgment or actions beyond the child's
  level of maturity, physical condition or mental
  abilities and that results in bodily injury or a
  likelihood of harm to the child or
• Failure to use resources available to treat a
  diagnosed medical condition if such treatment
  will make a child substantially more comfortable,
  reduce pain and suffering, correct or
  substantially diminish a crippling condition from
  worsening. A parent legitimately practicing
  religious beliefs who does not provide specified
  medical treatment for a child because of
  religious beliefs shall not for that reason be
  considered a negligent parent

21
Language, Race Gender

• Race alone or in combination with one or more
  other races  
•  
• White 216,930,975 77.1
• Black or African American 36,419,434 12.9
• American Indian and Alaska Native 4,119,301 1.
  5
• Asian 11,898,828 4.2
• Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific
  Islander 874,414 0.3
• Some other race 18,521,486 6.6
•  
•  
• HISPANIC OR LATINO AND RACE
• Total population 281,421,906 100.0
• Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 35,305,818 12.
  5
• Mexican 20,640,711 7.3
• Puerto Rican 3,406,178 1.2
• Cuban 1,241,685 0.4
• Other Hispanic or Latino 10,017,244 3.6

22

• POPULATION 5 YEARS AND OVER BY LANGUAGE SPOKEN
  AT HOME AND ABILITY TO SPEAK ENGLISH
•  
•  
• Population 5 years and over 579,740 100.0
• Speak only English 496,982 85.7
• Speak a language other than English 82,758 14.3
•  
• Spanish 16,674 100.0
• Speak English "very well 10,873 65.2
• Speak English "well 3,247 19.5
• Speak English "not well 2,092 12.5
• Speak English "not at all 462 2.8
•  
• Other Indo-European languages 2,851 100.0
• Speak English "very well 9,184 71.5
• Speak English "well 2,221 17.3
• Speak English "not well 1,258 9.8
• Speak English "not at all 188 1.5
•  

23

• ABILITY TO SPEAK ENGLISH 
• Population 5 years and over 579,740 100.0
• Speak a language other than English 82,758 14.3
• 5 to 17 years 18,541 3.2
• 18 to 64 years 57,504 9.9
• 65 years and over 6,713 1.2
• Speak English less than "very well 30,842 5.3
• 5 to 17 years 6,126 1.1
• 18 to 64 years 21,108 3.6
• 65 years and over 3,608 0.6
• The 1990 Census reported 6.3 million children
  between the ages of 5 and 17 who speak languages
  other than English (38 increase from last
  decade).
• Nearly half of limited English proficient
  children live in California, Texas or New York
  which has significant implications on the
  educational system.
•  

24
Proposition 187

• Proposition 187 prohibits public social services
  to those who cannot establish their status as a
  U.S. citizen, a lawful permanent resident, or an
  alien lawfully admitted for a temporary period
  of time.''
• Proposition 187 also limits attendance at public
  schools to U.S. citizens and to aliens lawfully
  admitted to the United States for permanent
  residence or otherwise authorized to be here.

25

• It is estimated there are more than more than
  2,000,000 illegal aliens in California and more
  than 400,000 illegal aliens in our schools. The
  cost to California taxpayers exceeds 4 billion
  annually, or about 2,000 per illegal alien.
  That's not surprising considering the fact that
  it costs about 7,000 for each non-English
  speaking student in our schools.

26

• Reaffirming that teachers, nurses and social
  workers need not act as border patrol agents, on
  November 14, 1998 U.S. District Court Judge
  Marina Pfaelzer found almost all of Proposition
  187 unconstitutional because the law, passed by
  California voters in 1994, oversteps the
  boundaries of state authority.
• The District Court ruling states that the passage
  by Congress of the Personal Responsibility and
  Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRA) - the
  so-called "Welfare Reform" of 1996 - precludes
  the state from establishing laws that are
  separate and in conflict with federal law on
  immigration policy and the treatment of
  immigrants, regardless of their legal status.

27

• As the chief law enforcer of the state, Governor
  Davis was constitutionally bound to defend the
  law, even though he had been an outspoken
  opponent of 187 when it was an initiative. So, in
  a maneuver designed to avoid having Pfaelzer's
  ruling overturned by a higher court, Davis
  entered into a legal "mediation" with 187's
  opponents. Thus, both sides in this contrived
  "mediation" process were out to scuttle the law.
  Not surprisingly, both "sides" in the rigged
  mediation procedure quickly agreed to kill it.
• A June 1999 poll by the Los Angeles Times found
  that 60 percent of California voters would still
  vote to bar illegal immigrants from receiving
  state-funded benefits

28
Cross-Cultural Practice

• There is no single American culture
• Diversity is to be acknowledged and valued
• Members of each cultural group are diverse and
• Acculturation is a dynamic process

29
At-Risk Children

• The disadvantaged preschooler
• Children from low income areas
• The migrant child
• Homeless children
• Adolescent parents
• Children with AIDS/HIV
• Gay Lesbian Youth
• Abused neglect youth
• Nonattenders
• Gang violence and delinquent behavior
• Drug alcohol users
• Gifted Talented youth

30
Resilience

• The ability to succeed even in very negative
  environmental circumstances.
• Three major areas of protective factors
• Caring and supportive relationship-at least one
• Positive and high expectations, with the belief
  that success is attainable
• Opportunities for meaningful participation-
  education, employment, growth achievement

31

• Resilience is not a trait that people either have
  or do not have. It involves behaviors, thoughts,
  and actions that can be learned and developed in
  anyone.